frowned at her phone. It had been vibrating with notifications the entire time we’d been talking, but that wasn’t anything new. She had a pretty big following on Instagram. “Is Drew blowing up anyone else’s phone?”
Mena and Harlow pulled theirs from their pockets. I had no idea where mine was.
“I have twelve missed calls.” Mena frowned.
“Same. And no messages.” Harlow looked around at us.
Amaya’s phone buzzed again. She rolled her eyes and picked up. “Why are you blowing up our phones? We’re kinda in the middle of—”
We could hear Drew’s voice on the other end but couldn’t make out what he was saying.
Amaya sat up straighter, the annoyance draining from her face to be replaced with something more serious. “We’re at my place. Just come here.”
Another moment of silence, then she hung up and looked at us all. “He’s freaking out. Something about Will and . . . Hendrix.”
I shot to my feet. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Amaya’s voice remained calm. “But he was already in the car. He should be here any minute.”
I rushed to the window overlooking her curved driveway, and sure enough, a few minutes later, Drew’s Audi came tearing toward the house. As soon as the car slammed to a halt, Drew jumped out and rushed to the door. His footsteps pounded on the stairs, and then he was standing just outside Amaya’s room, breathing hard.
“Shit.” He ran both hands through his hair. “I shouldn’t be dragging you into this. Never mind.”
He turned to leave, but we all lunged for him at the same time, shouting over one another. Between the four of us pulling at his clothes and scolding him, we managed to drag him back into the room. He took a seat at the foot of the bed, and the four of us lined up in front of him, blocking the door.
“Drew, what is going on?” I demanded. It felt good to have that steel back in my voice, the strength returning to my spine. “Are you OK? Is Hendrix?”
“Yeah, Hendrix is fine.” He waved that away, then fixed me with a look. “It’s you I’m worried about.”
“Me?” I raised my eyebrows, not giving anything away. Had he found out about my meltdown somehow?
“Will . . .” Drew swallowed. “Will’s lost the plot, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to drag you girls into it, but I’m worried about you, D—what he might do. And I . . . I don’t know how to make them stop.”
He ran his hands through his hair again, and I shared worried glances with the girls. Mena sat down next to him and rubbed his shoulder, just as she’d been rubbing mine earlier.
“You’re not making any sense,” Amaya said. “What don’t you want to drag us into?”
He released a big breath and leaned his elbows on his knees. “Last year, just before the school year ended, some of the guys and I . . . we got into some shit.”
“Stop being vague,” I demanded.
“Fights. We started going to these illegal fights Will somehow found out about. At first it was just to watch, make bets. But after a while, some of the guys started fighting too. It was fun at first, a rush, all that money passing hands. But the people running it . . . the opponents they were pitting the guys against got tougher and meaner, and we started walking away with more bruises and less money. And then they wouldn’t let us walk away at all.”
“Luke and the guys. The car accident.” I clenched my fists, forcing my breathing to remain even. Over the summer, four of the guys on the football team had been in a horrible accident, and none of them could play anymore. “They were hurt in a fight and not an accident.”
Will shook his head. “No. It was a car accident. It just wasn’t exactly accidental. The people running the fights got in touch after, made it clear. That’s what would happen to anyone else wanting to leave.”
The words coming out of Amaya’s mouth were filthy even for her. Harlow wrapped her arms around herself.
“You’re all a bunch of fucking idiots,” I said calmly. “You couldn’t just hire some hookers and trash your daddy’s yacht like regular rich assholes? You had to go and get involved in some dodgy fight club? That is the most toxic-masculinity, stupid-ass bullshit I’ve ever heard.”
“I know!” Drew pleaded, hands splayed out. “We all lost interest pretty quickly, but they wouldn’t let